A Hefty Risk with Big Reward

Take a moment to watch one of these TV spots or two (they’re pretty entertaining; you might find yourself watching all three).

What makes these ads so great?

Hefty took a risk. While it can be intimidating to bring a creative, “out-of-the-box” idea to a board of directors, a safe approach doesn’t always make an impact. In this party mom campaign, skeptics would say that Hefty ran the risk of alienating some more traditional consumers. However, by taking that risk, the ad really hones in on their key target markets: beer pong champs and moms (who, by the way, make most of household buying decisions). Way to go Hefty, you took a risk and now you’re reaping the rewards. Even the media is picking up on your genius and spreading the message for free.

This campaign appeals to emotions. These ads make you laugh! Adding humor is a great way to make an impact. Why? Studies show ads that engage us emotionally work better. This brings us to the next point, in order to set the stage for a laugh it often means sacrificing some time.

More time was spent connecting with the target audience, rather than talking about themselves. Hefty branding does not appear in these ads until the last ten seconds. That means the majority of the advertisement (three quarters of each ad) was spent connecting with their target audience.

The bottom line? The next time you consider updating your brand’s creative — think about taking a risk, appealing to emotion and resisting the urge to talk about your business every second of that 30 second spot.

At Market Mentors, we take a full-service approach to marketing for a fully integrated campaign — using a combination of our service areas such as advertising, public relations and social media to name a few. Often times, a great ad campaign and PR pitch that goes viral on social media starts with the same idea. What makes a really great campaign is a small nugget of creativity that we can turn into a multi-dimensional campaign across several mediums. While I spend my days pitching reporters to use our clients as sources for the news — I often find inspiration from the other side of the fence — advertising. If an ad campaign is truly entertaining — like Hefty’s creative “turning ordinary moms into slang-spewing party animals” — there is huge potential for the campaign to go viral on social media and earn media, too. Talk to us about how we can be creative with your brand today.